Ten Scales
by Thinking Without Speaking
Summary: Five-year-old Hinata finds the young merboy, Komaeda, on his summer vacation. Komaeda's home is being flooded with pollution and Hinata needs to rescue him. (Major character death)


_Drip._

_Clunk._

_Drop._

_Tink_.

Raindrops fell slowly upon the slanted windows of the car. The boy inside stared on in wonder. Perhaps this young man thought that this time the rain was special, compared to the other drops of rain he had seen in his short lifetime? Perhaps he realized that, in fact, every time it rained it was special, including now. Perhaps he thought nothing at all.

His small, chubby fingers traced the cold drops, racing them down the slightly-foggy-but-not-all-that-much window. He dreamt they were the racecars that he got every Christmas from rich grandparents that coddled him far too much. The racecars morphed into bright red buttons in his mind, and he felt the compelling urge to press every one.

And so he did. Repeated thumps echoed in the car, his finger constantly jammed up against the glass, gleefully pressing every button twice (it must be twice, really, daddy told him that one was a bad omen, whatever that was). The buttons would stop the rain, he told himself. He would stop the rain and his mommy would be happy to drive now! The sky would be clear and the white puffy things would come back so he could pretend to lick them like ice cream.

His abandoned blue elephant sat near him in the seat beside his, looking up at him sadly (or so we should imagine, the stitched-on smile looked so deceiving), its body crumpled in the middle from being carelessly tossed. The boy picked it up and snuggled it happily, encouraging it to push the buttons with him. More button pushers means less rain, after all!

"We're here," chirruped his mother, though still seeming downtrodden from the boring and rainy trip to wherever "here" was.

The young boy giggled and tried to unbuckle his seat belt, though later giving it up to his father, who completed the task for him. The boy hopped out of the car with his elephant and ran to the house ahead of him.

"Is this our house?" he asked loudly to both of his parents. The car beeped as his mother locked it.

"Yes it is, Hinata, now come here, you're covered in Goldfish!" his father walked up to Hinata and wiped his face with a handkerchief.

"Can we go inside?" he tried to ask, though it was muffled by the fabric.

"We can, but first go grab your toy bag from mommy, okay?" Hinata nodded and ran up to his mother to grab said item.

"Can we go inside now?" his father nodded and unlocked the door with a strange key, then let his son inside.

The house was small and warm. Jumping up on a couch, Hinata seemed to find it quite comfortable.

"Hinata, take your shoes off first!" called his mother, dragging a heavy suitcase indoors.

"Kay!" he giggled as he took his shoes off and laid them carefully by the stairs. "Daddy, look, I did it all by myself!" he smiled widely.

"Good job," his father ruffled his hair slightly. When he removed his hand, the one piece of hair that always stood up perked skywards again. "I'm going to go help mommy unpack. How about you go look around the neighborhood? The rain is clearing up and there are policemen to lead you home at every corner."

"Kay!" Hinata ran outside and looked at the sky. The white puffy things that he liked to lick sometimes were back! He waved hello and skipped off, then realized he forgot his shoes at home. Running back, he grabbed them and put them on with a fleeting "I forgot!".

Back on his adventure now, he walked happily down the sidewalk.

"Hi!" he shouted at one of the policemen. The man waved back.

There were many stores in the small town, but none of them interested him. He pressed his face to the glass of all of them nonetheless.

There was, however, something that caught his eye. At the end of the street, there was a large beach, with a port attached. It was empty. Leaving his shoes on the end of the sidewalk, he ran down the sand and to the long, smooth wooden plank at the end. He sat criss-cross-applesauce in the middle of it.

"Hellooooooo?" he called. Maybe someone was in the water? "Hello?"

"Hi!" someone called back. Hinata gasped.

"Woah! Where are you?"

"I'm down here, silly!" laughed a soft voice. Hinata looked over the side of the port. "Other side!" Hinata followed the instructions.

"Oh, hello!"

"Didn't we already say that?" the boy asked. He had pale hair (he couldn't tell if it was blonde or white) that hid his ears, gray-green eyes, a pale complexion, an assortment of freckles, thick eyelashes, and that was all that Hinata could see at the moment.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm Komaeda. Who are you?"

"Hinata! Why are you in the water?"

"Because that's what water is for. Why aren't you in the water?"

"Because I'm in my clothes, stupid," Hinata stuck his tongue out at Komaeda who frowned up at him.

"That's mean! I was just asking you a question," he pouted. Hinata dangled his legs off of the end of the port.

"It was a stupid question," he remarked.

"Hey!" Komaeda looked affronted. "Also, you shouldn't do that. It's only a little bit away from when the ships come, you'll get hit,"

"No I won't." Hinata crossed his arms against his chest and glared at Komaeda.

"You will! Move your legs, please." Komaeda swam around to face him head on.

"No."

"But I said please! Momma said that always worked,"

"Your mom was wrong!" taunted Hinata.

"Fine. Get hit from the tide and fall over into the ocean or something."

"I won't but okay!" he yelled. What a stupid kid. This boy in the water just got on his nerves. What was wrong with him? It may be summer but it was still kind of cold outside, not warm enough for swimming. Obviously.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash and the port shook. Hinata yelped in surprise as it happened again, and again, and again. With a scream, he fell off of the dock and tumbled into the ocean.

Under the water, it was less chaotic. He floated aimlessly, though unable to break surface. The blue surrounded him, comforted him. He had expected to feel cold, but strangely enough, he felt warm and cozy. Lazily, he watched a bubble float up and up, reaching towards the giant glowing sun. The sky and the white puffy things he liked to lick sometimes were distorted under the waves. Turning, he watched the bottom of the port shake and kick up sand, a perfect haze that masked many pretty fish. Well look at that, a giant fish was swimming towards him right now! He couldn't see the top or head of it, but it was green and slimy and looked kind of like a worm. It buzzed a little bit, and swayed rhythmically.

All too quickly, cold arms were around his waist and lifted him upwards. He broke the surface quickly, gasping for air and coughing out water. The freezing arms put him back on the port.

Looking up at his savior, he found it to be the strange boy from earlier. The breeze was blowing his water-streaked hair everywhere and Hinata inspected him. His ears looked like fish fins, and on his neck there were a few more.

"Are you okay?" asked Komaeda.

"No! You're weird and scary!" he screamed, then ran up the beach to his street, leaving his shoes and the scary boy behind him. Shivering and tripping over his sodden socks, he stumbled over to a policeman to take him home.

When he arrived, his parents ushered him inside and thanked the man.

"Are you okay?"

"What happened?"

"I went to the beach and the water hit me and I fell in!" his lip wobbled. "Then a scary boy with fish ears saved me and I don't like him!" he wailed.

"Shhh, shhh," coddled his mother. "You're alright. I'll have the police look for the boy tonight."

"It might be best for you to go to bed." suggested his father. Hinata nodded weakly then was picked up by his dad, who took him to his new bed. "We'll wash your clothes and Mr. Elephant, okay?"

"Kay," Hinata squirmed as his father squeezed him into some warm pajamas.

"Sleep well." he shifted under the blankets.

"Kay,"

That night he dreamt of shimmering fish scales.

* * *

><p>The morning lit his room in yellows, whites, and golds aplenty. The dresser shone brightly and his stuffed animals stared with demonically lit button eyes. He waved hello to them all as he left his room, flaunting down the stairs and sitting on a chair for breakfast.<p>

"How did you sleep?"

"I slept good," his grammar slightly betrayed his age. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands.

"Do you want to look around the town again?" asked his father.

"Yeah! The lady at the candy shop was nice and gave me a lollipop!" he exclaimed. His father chuckled.

"Alright. Eat and get dressed, then you can go."

"Kay!" Hinata scarfed up his pancakes as fast as he could and chugged his milk. "Done!" he smiled.

"Good. Come along, now," his mother walked up the stairs, son in tow.

About an hour later, when he was fed, bathed, and clothed, Hinata ran out of the house to explore.

Again he walked past the boring shops and the lady who gave him a piece of taffy and again he waved hello to the policeman. He bumped into a few kids, all of which did not interest him (but he said 'hi' to them anyways). And again he found himself at the port, shoes off and tracks in the sand behind him.

"Are you okay?" asked the strange boy, now leaning his arms on the dock.

"Yeah. But I don't like you." Hinata spat.

"Why not?" pouted Komaeda.

"People don't have fish things on them."

"What? But people have fish things! Mermaids have legs and stuff."

"Uh-uh!"

"Yeah-huh! You're the mermaid, I'm the person!"

"No way! I'm the person, you have to be stupid not to know that,"

"Well I'm right."

"No! Okay, if you'll be the mermaid and I can be the person, I'll be your friend."

"Really?" Komaeda perked up.

"Mm-hmm," Hinata nodded.

"Kay! I'll be the mermaid," Komaeda swam in a circle. "We're friends now!" Hinata groaned.

"Can I see your tail?" he asked.

"Yeah!" Komaeda pulled himself up onto the dock painstakingly.

It was green and slimy. There was a large lime vein traveling down the middle of it, surrounded by lime dots on both sides. It was mostly cylindrical and came down to a nubbed point. Both sides had a veil-ish green length that flopped uselessly beside it. It had an oily black coating in some places.

"What are the black spots?" he cocked his head.

"I don't know," Komaeda tried to wipe it off with his hands, but only spreading it further and getting it on his hands. "But it's not supposed to be here and it itches."

"It looks like the stuff mommy puts in her car." Hinata pointed out.

"Oh. Can she get it off?" inquired Komaeda.

"I don't think so." Hinata pondered this for a moment. "Anyways, where does it come from?"

"The water, I think! It's everywhere, and the other peop- I mean mermaids, were getting sick, so they moved away." Komaeda shouted his answer gleefully, glad to be able to finally answer something.

"Where did they go?"

"I don't know. Somewhere? I was asleep and no one woke me up for moving day," he pouted.

"So did they all leave?"

"Mm-hmm!"

"And you're alone?"

"Yeah!" Komaeda cleared his throat. "Well, actually, there is Lucky. He's my dog,"

Hinata thought for awhile. Was it safe for such a young boy to be alone in the toxic water? Or to be alone at all? It was clear that Komaeda did not know who to talk to and who to keep away from, seeing how he immediately responded to his call originally. He looked back over to Komaeda, who was wincing as he cleaned more of the black goop out of his side and neck gills.

He flicked some out of his hair.

"You're coming with me." Hinata stated, confident.

"What?" Komaeda looked confused.

"I'm going to take you so you can stay in my house." Komaeda seemed shocked.

"Really?" he asked.

"Mhmm. I'll get you tomorrow."

"Really?" Komaeda rolled back into the water and took a deep breath under the surface, only to come up again and cough out more black oil. "Kay!" he sputtered.

Komaeda's mouth made an 'o' as he looked down at his side, then reached down to pick something off of it. "Oh,"

"What is it?"

"It's... Um, a scale! I don't have a lot of them, but one fell off." he held it up to the light, making it shimmer green and bright. He handed it to Hinata hesitantly. "Here, you can have it. It's really... Important." Hinata took it.

"Is it okay for them to fall off?" Hinata put it in his pocket.

"It's natural,"

"Oh," Hinata stood up and brushed off his shorts. "I'm going to go home now. See you later!"

"Okay! Bye!" Komaeda swam away.

Hinata walked home, holding tightly onto the scale in his pocket.

* * *

><p>He woke up early in the morning. Not bothering to change out of his pajamas or eat, he ran downstairs and put on his shoes, grabbed his red wagon from the garage, and left for the dock.<p>

He ignored the presence of his shoes and ran down the sand with them on. Filling the bottom of the wagon with water from the ocean, he called for Komaeda.

"Komaeda! Good morning! I'm ready to take you home!" he shouted. Slowly, a head rose from the water.

"Mornin'," Komaeda rubbed the sleep out from his eyes and wiped the midnight oil from the tips of his ear fins.

"Get in the wagon, kay?" Hinata reached down so that Komaeda could grab onto his arms and pull himself up.

Komaeda coughed harshly. "Kay," he reached up and soon was pulled into the wagon.

Hinata trudged off to his home, Komaeda weighing more than he expected. No matter how many times that Hinata told him to be quiet, Komaeda was awake and alert now, and continued to talk his ear off about nothing whatsoever and everything at all.

"Please, someone is going to take you away," whispered Hinata.

"Oh, really?" Komaeda splashed in the puddle of water he was laid in. "And why would they do that?"

"Because you're a mermaid,"

"No I'm not, I'm a pe- Oh wait, yes I am, nevermind," Komaeda squirmed around in his small seat. "This doesn't have enough tail room, Hinata!"

"It has enough tail room, okay?" he shouted, angered. "Now be quiet!"

"Kay," Komaeda shrank away from the yelling.

They arrived slowly, Hinata grunting as he lifted the heavy wagon up the stairs.

"I can crawl, you know." whispered Komaeda.

"You could have told me that before!" Hinata dumped Komaeda out of the wagon.

Komaeda flopped up the stairs, holding the rails like lifelines.

"You're making a mess!" hissed Hinata.

"Well sorry, I live in the water," Komaeda tried to wipe the water off of his tail.

"Just-!" Hinata opened the door. "Just go in the bathroom, okay?"

"Kay!" Komaeda rolled in, hitting the door quite a few times, but ultimately making it to his goal. Hinata turned on the tap to lukewarm, and tossed in his favorite rubber duck.

"Is there anything you need in the water?" he asked.

"I don't think so... Actually, do you have salt?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I need that in the water!"

"Oh, okay!" Hinata ran downstairs and looked around for the salt. There was a box labeled 'sea salt' that he decided to use. After all, didn't Komaeda live in the sea or something? He bounded upstairs and dumped the entire contents of the box into the water, that was now nearly overflowing.

"Is that okay?" he asked.

"Yup!" Komaeda nodded with a smile. "Can you help me in?" he asked.

"Yes," Hinata grabbed Komaeda around the middle and grunted as he tried to lift him up. Komaeda's tail was still on the floor, and his head was lolling downwards.

"Careful!" Komaeda yelled. "My gills are right there and I wanna keep them,"

"I know!" Hinata moved Komaeda so that his webbed hands were gripping the farthest edge of the tub. "Now you can pull yourself in," Hinata let go of Komaeda and massaged his arms. "You're heavy,"

Komaeda hoisted himself into the artificially-salty water. "I know, my tail is all muscle," Komaeda eased himself down into the bottom of the tub, then picked at his side again. And again, he pulled off a stunning scale. "Another one!" he handed it to Hinata.

"Thank you," Hinata put it on the bathroom table, like he had put the other one. He gasped. "What are you doing to the water?"

"Hmm?" Komaeda looked down at the water. "Oh, it looks like the black stuff is coming off!" the water was becoming blacker and blacker by the minute, sticking to the tub walls and to Komaeda's upper body. "That doesn't look good,"

"We have to get all the black out!" Hinata unplugged the drain and began to watch the water swirl away, taking some of the black with it. Hinata turned on the shower and handed Komaeda a sponge from the cabinet. "Wipe out your gills and tail and I'll get it out of the tub." Komaeda nodded and began to scrub at the black spots on his tail, trying to keep it under the shower's spray.

Hinata worked powerfully, scrubbing at the black spots on the white surface with a washcloth. They were tough to get rid of, and no matter how much work he did, most of it stayed nonetheless.

"I can't get it all off!" wailed Komaeda, who was still furiously scrubbing at his tail. The sponge was filled with the toxic junk and doing more harm than help.

"What is it...?" Hinata scrubbed harder, now getting it to drip onto the floor of the tub. Komaeda's tail was still coated in the stuff, seemingly attached to it. "We need soap," he declared. Acting upon his own suggestion, he sped down the stairs to grab the dish soap, the strongest kind they had. He ran back upstairs and poured it over Komaeda's tail and torso, and the bath.

Komaeda washed out his sponge and tried again, the soap finally working on it. He laughed, relieved, as it began to pour down the drain. His tail quickly ended up covered in suds, but clean underneath them. He gulped as he washed out his sponge to clean his gills.

"Are you worried?" Hinata asked him.

"Mhmm. Cleaning your gills is like... Washing a cut," explained Komaeda.

"Oh! Whenever I scrape my knee and mommy has to clean it, she has me hold a toy! I'll get you one!" Hinata dashed to his room and grabbed an old toy, a little monkey with long arms, and brought it back to Komaeda. "Just hold onto that and it will hurt less!"

"Kay..." Komaeda clutched the monkey as tight as he could as he brought the clean sponge closer to his gills. Finally, he began to clean the sticky-black fluid out from them, holding the monkey tighter still. His first set of gills were done with a flourish, then he took a deep breath and continued on to the others. Finally he had finished all four sets of gills on his neck and his sides.

"That wasn't so hard!" cheered Hinata.

"Yeah!" Komaeda smiled. "I feel a lot better now!" Komaeda cleaned the sponge out under the shower head.

The bathtub was cleaned quickly, most of the salt had stayed, thankfully. They closed up the drain again and turned on the faucet. It filled completely after awhile and they turned both of the water sources off. Komaeda held the monkey to his chest.

"What's its name?" he asked Hinata.

"I never named it,"

"Really?" Komaeda looked at him. "Can I name it?"

"Sure," Komaeda squirmed in the tub.

"He should be called..." he thought for a moment. "Lucky! I had to leave the real Lucky behind, at least now I'll have him!"

"Lucky is a good name,"

"Thanks!" Komaeda looked around. "Are your parents awake?"

"Oh, mommy and daddy! I forgot them!" Hinata ran out of the room and locked it behind him, then down the stairs.

"Young man." grumbled his tired father. "Why is there a wagon next to the stairs? And why is everything covered in water?"

"I... Went to the beach," he replied. "And I took my wagon so I could play with my toys."

"You left the house in your pajamas?" his father asked.

"... Yes,"

"Eat the cereal your mother left for you. Then go to your room." Hinata nodded and began to eat his Honey Nut Cheerios. "Mom and I have work today, you'll be home alone, okay?" Hinata grunted his affirmation. "Do you want me to hire a babysitter?"

"No thanks," Hinata finished and trudged upstairs slowly. "Have a good day!" he shouted down to his dad.

"You too,"

Hinata rushed into the bathroom and sat next to the tub. Komaeda was lying down under the water, his eyes closed.

"Are you okay?" he shouted. Soon he noticed his chest was rising up and down. He was sleeping. Hinata followed Komaeda's lead and fell asleep, his hand on the edge of the bath, his head on the lid of the toilet.

* * *

><p>"Hinata?" Komaeda asked.<p>

"Yeah?" he responded.

"I'm scared," Komaeda played with Lucky's stuffed hand.

"What of?"

"Dying,"

* * *

><p>He awoke many times over the week that Komaeda stayed with him, one time every day. And every day, Komaeda would hand him a fallen scale. The black oil was gone and done for, but Komaeda still got sicker and sicker every day.<p>

Hinata had eight scales on the day he decided to move him back home.

"Komaeda?" Hinata asked. He and the mermaid were now the best of friends.

"Yeah?" Komaeda responded.

"I think you should go home," he suggested.

"But-," Komaeda broke out into a coughing fit. For the first time since they had cleaned him of the strange substance, Komaeda's hand that he had coughed into was covered in black oil. He stared at it in fear and amazement, then submitted. "Okay,"

"Are you okay?" asked Hinata.

"Mhmm...," Komaeda wiped his hand onto the shower curtains. "I'm tired," he stated.

"Then go to sleep,"

Komaeda nodded and drifted under the surface, breathing shallowly. Hinata walked outside.

It was raining.

He remembered it was raining when he got here. He had pressed the raindrops like buttons. Would the buttons stop what was happening to Komaeda? He didn't think so. He had lost faith in his buttons, and in the twos he would press them in.

He sat in the middle of the sidewalk, thinking about what to do.

Would taking Komaeda home help him more than hurt him? Or would Komaeda get worse?

A girl sat next to him. She had pale pinkish hair and an overall jumper.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Who are you?" he retaliated.

"Nanami. Who are you?"

"Hinata. Why do you think something's wrong?"

"Untroubled people don't sit in the rain," she reasoned.

"I guess so." he thought for a moment. "Would you be able to help me?"

"Maybe,"

"Do you want to help me?"

"Absolutely."

And so he told her everything that had happened.

* * *

><p>"So he's in here?" Nanami asked. Hinata nodded and opened the bathroom door.<p>

Komaeda sat up in the tub. "Oh, hello Hinata!" he seemed to notice the new face now. "Um, hello!" he greeted. Nanami knelt next to the tub.

"I'm Nanami, I'm going to help you and Hinata," she assured in a soothing voice.

"Oh, okay!" he put Lucky on the edge of the tub. "Are we leaving soon?"

"Right now, actually," Hinata commanded. "We're going to take you out, okay?" Komaeda nodded and Hinata hoisted his upper half towards the sky, Nanami doing the same with his tail. They carried him carefully down the stairs, then deposited him into the red wagon that was filled with ocean water. Nanami opened the door and Hinata pulled the wagon out. The rain had stopped and the sky was clear. Nanami handed him a blue blanket, and Lucky was put in beside him.

They made it to the ocean and Komaeda was dumped out. The night was quickly approaching, so they said their goodbyes to him.

"Hinata?" Komaeda called.

"Mhmm?"

"Thank you," Komaeda handed him Lucky and the blanket.

"Oh, you can kee-,"

"No, thank you. Very much. And I also wanted you to have this," Komaeda handed him another scale, this one shinier than all of the others combined.

"We're seeing each other tomorrow, you know," laughed Hinata.

"... Yeah, we are." Komaeda smiled up at him from the foggy water. "Good night,"

Hinata and Nanami replied, and walked home.

He had nine scales.

* * *

><p>He awoke in the morning and walked to Nanami's house to say hello. Her mother invited him inside, and he played with Nanami for an hour or two.<p>

"We should go check on Komaeda," he suggested.

"I have piano lessons, actually. Maybe I'll visit him later?" she supposed. He nodded and went back to his house, to grab the red wagon with Lucky inside.

He took the long trek to the beach, took his shoes off at the end of the sidewalk and dragged the wagon down the dock.

"Komaeda!" he greeted. "Komaeda!"

He was met with silence.

"Komaeda?" he looked around. There was no one there.

But on the edge of the coast, he found something glittering in the sun. He walked over to it and picked it up.

It was a scale.

On the sand beside where it was, there was a small bit of writing.

'My last one' it said.

There was a black trail leading to the farthest end of the coast.

He did not want to follow it.

He walked back to the dock to put the scale in his wagon. The tenth scale. Komaeda only had ten scales.

The dock was lit golden, shining over the ocean and casting its image upon the sky, clouds floating lazily as if nothing was wrong. The water rippled cleanly with a slight lapping noise off of the dock where it all began, happily spinning tales of its story in a way that no one would hear. Trees hummed as they dropped leaves into the ocean to be discovered by foreigners.

And there he sat, at the reflection of the end of the world, his best friend's only belongings in the wagon beside him, how it should have always been, how it always would be.

* * *

><p><strong>(So there it is! To answer some questions that you probably won't have:<strong>

**When mermaids [In this story] lose all their scales, they die**

**Yes, this story is about pollution**

**Yes, Komaeda died**

**Yes, they're OOC, they're children versions of themselves**

**If I didn't mention it in the story, Hinata, Komaeda, and Nanami are all about five years old**

**Also, if you see a name or thing you don't recognize, just tell me, and I'll fix it!**

**[Sorry this is horrible])**


End file.
